All about Moi

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Our Mother & Baby Group Debut

I did it - I have braved my first baby and toddler morning in the village.  I woke up with a weird feeling this morning until I remembered what I was about to embark on.  Now, I used to be quite a responsible/organised person regularly take hundreds of total strangers to foreign lands after only just briefly introducing myself to them at airports but never the less I was nervous about walking into a room of mothers and children this morning.

It was freezing but in my bid to get a bit fitter (e.g. not getting out of breath running up and down the stairs) I walked to the village hall. It was bitter and as my nose runs at the slightest drop in temperature and I have another cold (ta Gorgeous Girl!) it was streaming.   Disgusting, sorry, but trying to create a cool and composed aura whilst constantly and noisily blowing my bright red honk, barking like a 50 cigs a dayer and my hair all frizzed from the drizzly wind was not the "Ooooh she looks nice I want to be friends with her" entrance I was after.  I'd even taken time over my outfit, aiming for trendy but not too trendy and approachable but not too mumsy and had asked Husband what he thought Beautiful Boy should wear for his 'debut' appearance (he humoured me).   But after triple checking the sign to say I'd come to the right place and wasn't about to walk into to a private childrens birthday party or AA meeting or something I took a deep breath (literally) and went in........

......And BB was fast asleep in his pram.  I thought he'd been a bit quiet but we've recently taken to letting him view outwards in the pram and in my selfish state forgot that this was actually about making him some friends and that it would be beneficial if he was actually awake and able to interact!  Arriving at a mother and baby group with kind of no baby to pretend to talk to or show off or help you make conversations with is a bit awkward to say the least.

I fussed around my pram for a bit, taking off my layers, blowing my nose and trying to plan where to sit when I luckily recognised one person there who has also moved here and she introduced to the 'leader' and I got a coffee.  I then met a great mum who has got 22 month old triplets and a 7 year old.  It made me feel a bit guilty that I'd come with GG at nursery and only a sleeping 10 month old to look after!  Luckily BB woke up after a while (I hadn't prodded him honest) and he happily crawled about, got bashed on the nose by a big girl with a wooden cot and ate a few crumbs off the floor before he got his own biscuit and had a lovely sing song at the end - he seemed to love every second.

It was fab and I feel a bit proud of myself silly as that seems even to myself and I can't wait for next week, I will probably work out our outfits the night before again though and if it's cold I might drive.....

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Tears, Tantrums and Half Term.

I've had blog block lately and I've found it hard to find inspiration.  Think I've just been settling into the house but also had a lot of emotional, rubbish, relationship (not of the husband variety thank goodness - he and me are all good) blurgh to deal with.  In short, arranging to Baptise our BB and choosing Godparents = upset (to put it mildly) within Husband's family.  I've therefore been a bit (!) grumpy and intolerant of anyone who seems to be being rude to me.

GG is unwell which has been a rubbish start to halfterm, she has a huge mouth ulcer which she's never had before and means she is eating even more like a sparrow and in addition to a normal sniffle I think maybe the stress of moving and trying to go without night time pullups (a short lived venture last week) might have had it's toll.   BB is teething again and so once everyone was seated breakfast began today with a pre-meal cocktail of Calpol for all (I would have had a G&T but it was a bit early so put up with a lick of the spoons).

I've been fantasising about lounging around in pj'd bliss this week but everyday so far GG wants to get up and go and the crack of dawn (regardless of being unwell), begging me to get her dressed and asking what we're doing today and being the grumpiest troll on earth when it's not exactly what she wants to do.  I can't wait to remind her of this in about 10 years time when I'll be dragging her out of her pit on a Saturday (or just hoovering her room to wake her up just like my mum did to us!). I'm exhausted already and shouting far too much.

I've not managed to go to any groups in the village yet as they've coincided with visits from my friends and I'm a bit nervous but aiming to go for it next week - BB is in desperate need of an alternative role model to a dress and princess obsessed, grumpy, flame haired girl.  The trouble is he loves her so much already and crawls around after her even kissing her feet (I kid you not!) when standing up at her on the sofa.

We're going to attempt the farm this afternoon, even though they're both a bit under the weather being amongst other people might make me and GG a bit less inclined to strop and I'm also going to try and have a hair cut tomorrow (whit whoo - steady on I hear you cry!).

Oh I nearly forgot! I am now officially unemployed as I handed in my notice (I was on maternity leave).  It feels weird but a huuuge weight of my shoulders as I was dreading doing it but knew the time would come once we'd moved house.  Husband has been brill and not outwardly panicking at the responsibility of solely financing the family.  So I am now officially a Stay At Home Mummy..........GULP.

Sunday 6 February 2011

New Home....

We're in! All settled into our new home and I love it....let the villagey life commence.....

In honour of our new abode here are my top 4 tips on moving home:

1.  Ply the removal men with tea and coffee and a tin of cadbury biscuits (cleverly squirrelled away from Christmas) so that even though you have bombarded them with nonsense, girly wittering anxious phonecalls during the previous week they will still collect, transport and deposit your cherished belongings with care.

2.  Have the fizzy orange multivitamin tablets to hand in your 'emergency pack' so that by the end of a week of fast food (Pizza, McDonalds, Pizza again and then an Indian constituted my evening dining Weds - Fri last week) you can at least feel that you have had something healthy.

3.  When your cats arrive home from the Cat Hotel make sure they go out exploring together so that even though you have day dreamed of them 'going awol' you aren't jumping at the sound of the newly installed cat flap waiting for one of them to return and calling to Husband "is that him???" every 5 minutes (this is what my mum must have felt like waiting for me to come home from the pub back in the day).

4.  Fight the urge to drive past your old home to see how New Owner is doing and knock on the door to say "How do you like it?  Have you changed anything yet? Didn't my Mum and I clean it so well for you?  This is where we brought our babies home from the hospital to and I laboured in that bath.  This is where Husband's Dad helped us board the loft and he's not here anymore so won't know our new house.  Please don't rip down the beautiful rose printed Cath Kidston wallpaper from GG's bedroom without a second thought.  Finally please take care of our house and love it like we did (except the noisy gangs outside in the summer either snogging or fighting almost on our front garden, the fact that our pizza delivery man got attacked down the road on his way to us one day and the not so good school catchment area)*".

* I wouldn't say this bit as he doesn't have children yet anyway to worry about catchment areas.

Friday 28 January 2011

Reasons to be Cheerful - Part 4

Here is my week 4 post for Reasons to be Cheerful as hosted by the lovely Mich at Mummy from the Heart:

Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy From the Heart
A biiiit of a stretch for me after my GRUMP post yesterday but am deffo feeling a mite chirpier so heregoes:

1. We move in 6 days (gulp) but envisaging my furniture, lovely new sofa cushions and GG and BB running around in the new house is keeping me going!

2. I had a wonderful lunch with a friend today which stretched into more of a day (albeit with 3 children in tow between us). It entailed a lovely combination of baby talk (she is wonderfully pregnant), food (scampi, chips and mushy peas followed by a taster dessert of eton mess, lemon tart and profiteroles - who could ever not be cheerful about eating out?) plus the planning of a trip to London and talking about everything else under the sun.  I haven't done any housework (my bed is still unmade - oops better do that at least before Husband comes home) or packing!  Plus I think Husband and I are having a take away tonight - RESULT.

3. I heard Adele on the Radio1 Live Lounge yesterday and last night downloaded her new album 21.  If you have not yet got this album please get it - it is amazing.  The track 'Do you Remember' made me cry at breakfast time this morning - it's a masterpiece.  I love getting new music.

Thursday 27 January 2011

G.R.U.M.P

**WARNING, this contains grumpiness** **WARNING, this contains grumpiness**

Reasons why I am 'tetchy' today:

1. We are moving house 1 week today.  You know that feeling when you start clearing out your wardrobe, everything is on the floor in a mountain and you think 'why did I start this'.....this is where we're at.

2. DD has cried every day this week when I've COLLECTED her from nursery.  Apart from making it look like she's very unhappy to come home with me, dealing with tears and trying to listen to and console her in a small, over heated corridor with children and adults bumping into you whilst wearing a winter coat and holding an exceedingly heavy baby (or sitting him on the floor only for him to fall over and bump his head) is very hot sweaty work.

3. I'm tired.  Late nights from Husband being out Tuesday (I therefore couldn't get to sleep) and a late night 'discussion' last night has made me tired.  I'm not good at all tired.  Not a skill to have lacking in parenthood.

4.Yesterday I admit to yelling 'just leave me alone for 5 minutes' and locking myself in the downstairs toilet - this was to my DD. *fail*.

5. It's not fair that Husband gets to go away on trips (albeit work but I know how much fun these are too).  I don't want to work full time (nor even part time - I'm currently on maternity leave) but having had quite a good job pre-babies I know how much fun it is and what I'm missing out on.  I now have an inbuilt switch which means I couldn't go away and leave my children for a week if it was offered to me on a plate (Husband will have notched up 3 week long trips within a year).  Also the things that Husband does are with work so for free, if I was to do 'tit for tat' it involves money and therefore means a family discussion and further guilt on my part as this money could be spent on things for us all.  Humph. There is no answer to this I know.

On a lighter note, I am wearing my beautiful new navy blue flowery tights from M&S (have a look online, no sponsorship - just spreading the love), a woollen grey dress and clip in my hair with a button on.  I am therefore dressed like a petulant child.

Monday 24 January 2011

Listography - Things I Wish I Could Do

I'm joining in with Katetakes5 listography this week for the first time - 5 Things I wish I could do.  I'm never content so this one's right up my street!

1. Speak French fluently (see previous blog for my Frenchiness), I did it for GCSE and got a respectable B and then did a conversational french course as an adult and can get by but would love to be able to do it all right with the verbs, masculine/feminine tenses and words correctly.....  I'll admit something....nearly 4 years ago I registered and baptised my DD's middle name as Beau, I thought this meant beautiful in French but it is masculine and means handsome......oops.

2. Have enough time, energy and determination to see all my friends regularly. I have a wonderful lot of friends I've met through school, college and work and through all of our busy lifestyles there is always someone I keep thinking 'I must see or catch up with them'.  Apart from strictly diarising all of these 'meet ups' and making sure that me and all of my friends are healthy, rich enough not to work, have endless time enough to travel and magical nannies appear to take care of children or a butler to do all the chores left I don't know how to make it happen.

3. Be a radio DJ.  I think that if I had my time again (I sound like a 70 year old) I would definitely have pursued a job in radio.  All that music and mindless chit chat would have been a perfect job for me.  If Edith Bowman can do it then surely I could? (I'm too late for the annoying celebrity list but be assured she would have been on mine - say your T's properly woman!!).

4. Have a long, adventurous holiday each year guaranteed.  I have so far been exceedingly lucky with my travel, working on international events meant I went to some fantastic places all around the world and as Husband loves to travel too we've been to some great places.  BUT there is still so much to see, if we were to go on a long far flung holiday every year for the rest of our lives (and that's not possible to start at the mo with the chidlers, I don't think they'd appreciate the Taj Mahal just yet) I still don't think we'd get to see everything I want to.

5. Re-train as a beauty therapist (I've completed and passed the anatomy part), florist, psychologist and midwife (also see point 3 above) sorry if this is cheating but I would love to be all of these things but have run out of points and potentially lives. I kind of stumbled into event management after my a-levels and never really knew what I wanted to be when I was 'grown up'.  Now I know but it's too many things and I'm pretty certain I'll be unable to do it all.  Oh and I want to own a Bakers/Florist/Coffee Shop/Greeting card shop one day....Please.

Friday 21 January 2011

Reasons to be cheerful - part 3

Wowser, week 3 in my blogging journey is here already! Here is part 3 of my reasons to be cheerful today:


Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy with a Heart


1. We are going to 'exchange' today and therefore have a moving day set for 3rd Feb! Whoop Whoop Blimmin Whoop!!  I had a few hours of panic and a stress tummy ache last night (a childhood thing which I've never grown out of) as reality set in and I was thinking of everything to be done but Husband and I* joined together all our separate 100 'things to do before moving' lists (we love a list in this house) and compiled one lovely neat and comprehensive checklist**.

*read Husband did it and I chatted to my mum on the phone.
** this however did turn into a small row where I accused Husband of treating me like his secretary when he gave me a list of points to discuss with the removal man today. I was tired :-)

2. I have 2 cousins who are pregnant, once newly announced yesterday. It's so exciting to see our family growing.  Even though we live miles apart and see each other once in a blue moon, Facebook has made it possible to keep in touch with every stage and moment of joy.  What on earth did we do without this invention??? (reminds me I've got to watch that film The Social Network).

3. I'm going 'home' on Sunday to see my Mum and Dad.  I haven't seen them since Christmas Day and I know they miss seeing DD and BB (and hopefully me and Husband a little) and I can't wait, especially to show BB's commando speed crawling/wrestling with furniture skills.

Mummy from the Heart created reasons to be cheerful.  Why not have a go? Link up and visit her here.http://mdplife.blogspot.com

Wednesday 19 January 2011

7 things about me!

Mummy from the Heart http://mdplife.blogspot.com/  has included me in a link to disclose 7 things you don't know about me. Well I haven't been in the 'blog' world for long so it won't be too hard but I'll try and think of some interesting things!!

1.  I still have a 'dodey' - this is my comfort which started as a piece of ribboned cellular blanket as a baby but now takes the form of a hanky.  I keep it under my pillow and use when falling asleep, relaxing on the sofa, in a long car journey and it has been known to be secreted up my jumper sleeve on many a long flight.  A good hanky is one with tougher reinforced corners, often the older the better.  Even at the age of 34 my Dad still asks me if I've been rummaging in his hanky drawer and sometimes on my visits home I admit to having a little look at his collection if my few at home have got too threadbare!* My husband no longer bats an eyelid when I ask him to 'pop upstairs and grab my hanky' or wakes in the middle of the night to see me on all fours searching for it under the bedclothes.

*I'll often have a look at the hankies in department stores and Husband will ask hopefully if they're they any good and I'll sadly say no and turn away, they just don't seem to make them like they used to!

2. I had 4 fertility treatments called IUI in order to conceive my DD, I had more treatment 2 years later and after the 4th attempt I conceived but I lost the baby to an ectopic pregnancy and also had to have a tube removed.  3 months after my operation I conceived my BB completely naturally.

3. I live about 50 miles from my parents and two sisters who both have children, I have a lovely mother in law but miss having 'my family' close enough to babysit or pop over for a coffee and really envy people who have that.

4. My husband and I met on a holiday in Faliraki.  We met on the first night buying beer in the supermarket, got together (ahem) on the second night and haven't looked back since!

5. I love singing and will do Karaoke sober but am not very good (though once got 'Sing Star' rating singing Cindy Lauper 'Time after Time' and think my Alannah Miles 'Black Velvet' impression is almost acceptable!).  I will sing along to anything and have a really wide taste in music (why limit yourself when there is so much great music out there?!?!) from Meat Loaf to Rhianna, give me a hair brush and I'm there on stage at Wembley.

6. I'm a bit of a Francophile (is that right for someone who loves all things French?!?!), a small example is that I often lapse into a bit of Francais (see!) like Delboy from Only Fools and Horses and am obsessed with Breton stripe clothing, so much so my Husband actually made up a song about my love of Breton the other day to the tune of a well known Queen song which included the line 'oh Jojomamanbebe I love all the things you do'.  My family are also part of the weirdness - one of my sisters and Dad actually refer to each other as 'Papa' and 'Nicole' for no reason whatsoever.  And, yes we are going to France for our hols this year - we'll be the ones with a string of onions round our necks.

7. I love food. I think about food a lot and like to plan what my next meal will be.  I wish for my figure that I was one of those people who can just look at food as fuel but in truth I think life is too short to not enjoy all the wonderful delights out there.  I once thought of writing a blog purely on what food I'd eaten daily but not sure this would be interesting for anyone to look at (on second thoughts I've just looked at all the above!!).

I've got to now invite some more bloggers to join in but everyone I looked at had already done this so sorry I'm late to the game.  If you are reading this please just tag yourself below in my comments and join in and I'll deffo come and read!

x

Sunday 16 January 2011

Reasons to be cheerful - part 2

Here are my reasons to be cheerful as created by Mummy from the Heart http://mdplife.blogspot.com

Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy with a Heart

1. Husband bought me some tulips on Friday, they are brightening my sitting room and have reminded me that Spring and therefore my favourite season Summer (along with my birthday!) are on their way.  I adore Christmas but as soon as it's done I want the sunshine and heat (fingers crossed!!) to be here.

2. A very simple thing but my family's hair makes me cheerful.  I have got quite nice hair, it's received a few compliments in it's time, dark and a little bit curly and as of this evening freshly ungreyed.  It falls out in droves but luckily seems to grow in the same hearty manner (to the extent that I've got excess in other parts of my body I won't go into that here).  My GG has amazing strawberry ringlets that make people in the street (elderly ladies in particular) smile and we don't go a day without somebody commenting on it, I dread the day it's been dyed black and straightened to within an inch of its life but I know it will come.  But, what has made me extra cheerful recently is the sight of BB's hair growing and starting to curl round his ears, I can't bear the thought of cutting it already.

3. We got the paperwork through for our new house and think it'll be a matter of weeks now before we're moving.  It was another weekend of packing but every box packed is a step closer. Yippee!

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Boy oh Boy.....

I've got a confession to make. Yesterday I googled 'games for an 8 month old baby'.  Yes I know. RUBBISH.

Anyway (one of the results inspired me) and I pulled Beautiful Boy out from underneath his pile of toys, sat him up and got a ball.  We rolled in back and forth a few times and he even placed the ball back in my hands responding to my "Ta, now give it back to Mummy" - yippee all was well and good until he quickly found it much more interesting to turn around and start whacking his ball on the laminate floor because the loud sound was brilliant and instantly provided a huuuge grin on his face.

Now - I know how to occupy a baby, with GG I did activities like a mummy possessed, we did underwater swimming, yoga, massage, rhyme time (which was great especially for me as I couldn't remember hardly any of the nursery rhymes from my childhood apart from Old MacDonald and she got bored of that early on) and play dates galore.

But I have done nothing with BB, not one little class or course and I can't help but feel guilty about the lack of stimulation and friends of his 'own'.  My main excuses are:
a) sheer exhaustion and the memory of getting a baby and myself in and out of the pool is still too fresh in my mind
b) nursery runs/timings don't fit with classes
c) but mostly because we've been waiting to move to a new village (hopefully in a few weeks now) and I'm waiting to immerse myself in life there and then BB will have all the new friends he could ask for (and maybe a few more for me!)

So mostly he just seems to roll about and commando crawl about the house banging toys on the floor, which admittedly he loves but I can't help thinking it's not constructive enough?

Watching BB try and pull his Little People Car Garage on top of himself for a wrestle, even Husband quietly suggested at the weekend that he thought BB might need more organised play.  Actually, this was uttered from his lips in barely above a whisper and he quickly left the room.  You would have imagined that he'd be worried that I'd blown up in response to his supposed criticising of my parenting skills but really. As if.

Before I had a boy I used to think that people spouting the 'difference' in boys and girls was just rubbish and an excuse for ignoring their little soldier rampaging around the soft play pushing and shoving and swiping at anything, but now I'm starting to wonder........

Anyway I decided to try again and got the wooden building blocks.  GG used to love playing with these and would sit quietly for ages creating amazing structures. Some were a bit freakily good and we took photos joking she would be an architect (one day, like a scene out of Poltergeist I opened the washing machine to find a perfectly balanced column of 4 wooden blocks, that was scary).

I sat BB down and as expected GG came over straight away and we started to build the towers out of the blocks, and what did he do? Knock them down.  For about 15 minutes straight he found it hilarious for us to build towers and as quickly as we could build he was knocking them down and laughing his nappy off.

It was great fun - and stimulating to a degree I think? So, I'm not going to worry too much, he's probably just going to be a WWF wrestler and work a bulldozer.

Monday 10 January 2011

Cold and Light

Two things to share today.

1.  I have another blimming cold (feel free to replace blimming with a stronger word but I'm being polite).  This is nothing earth shattering in the current climate of swine flu and normal winter bugs but I have honestly had a cold every few months since I was first pregnant about 4 years ago.  I swear that most people think I secretly live on nothing but pork pies but fruit, vegetables and salad pass my lips daily and I take vitamins, drink green tea and even recently tried echinacea but to seemingly no avail.  Something inside me must have withered and stopped fighting these germs whilst my body was busy building my babies - does anyone have any tips?

I overheard Husband telling GG this morning (who has been such a mardy moo all weekend to put it mildly) to be good and nice to Mummy today as she is feeling poorly.  In the car on the way to nursery this morning she asked me when she will be 100, I said "when you are 100" but then she repeated the question again and I twigged the response she wanted - "ah! in about 96 years time petal".  "Oh" she said, "that's a long time..........when you are 100 Mummy I will look after you".  I smiled and said that was the nicest thing she had said to me. "And Mummy, when I am your age and you are poorly I will drive you and you can sit next to me in the front of the car".  At this I reached behind me and we squeezed hands in silent, mutual love.  This made me felt a whole lot better.

2.  I have decided to read the list of books Marie Claire stated in an issue last year were the 'must read books of women everywhere'.  One of them was Eat, Love, Pray which I handily got for Christmas.  I am only half way through and I LOVE THIS BOOK.  It is like a novel, biography, food guide and the best self help book ever rolled into one.

One of my stumbling blocks in parenthood has been my internal conflict about being fulfilled as 'myself' and fulfilling my Mummy/Housewife role (I will NEVER agree that these these roles are automatically intertwined!).  Anyway, coupled with my historic need to continually have a project (e.g. my blog) this book has made me realise I have the inability to be entirely content.

This issue is discussed (page 128 to be precise) and details a theory which has had a huge calming effect on me.  I will explain in very basic terms if I can.  Inside of each and everyone of us is a Supreme Self which is continually at peace, it is our actual true identity and divine and has been smothered by our worries, resentments, displeasure, pressures from external influences, our egos and general day to day experiences.  Unpeeling all these suffocating layers will therefore get you get in touch with your Supreme Self and therefore your 'true' self and continual contentment.

A big challenge huh?  I will continue reading...

Friday 7 January 2011

Reasons to be cheerful 1,2,3 - Part 1

A fantastic idea for a Friday by Mummy from the Heart http://mdplife.blogspot.com

1. I finally have the family I longed for, wished for, prayed for, dreamt about and sat in the toilet cubicle at work crying about, convinced that it would never happen.  It was a long hard slog for us, not nearly as difficult or heartbreaking as for some, but my own personal Everest that I would not wish for anyone to go through but am so thankful to have climbed and planted my flag in the peak not just once but twice (will we go for 3? - the jury is out on that one).

2. It is Friday. This means that I can count on Husband all weekend to help me throw the nappies out of the cat flap and wrestle arms and legs into various clothing (at 8 months Beautiful Boy is already so strong he would give Big Daddy a run for his money) plus we will be packing up, getting ready to move to what we call our 'grown up' house.

3. My Gorgeous Girl (3 1/2) reached a few milestones this week, she got herself a cup of water from the kitchen sink; I was all 'yay', 'well done you big girl', 'whoop whoop' but was groaning inside 'aaargh there goes me being able to leave the drying up/knives/scissors on the drainer'.  Then she got asked on her first tea date yesterday by a friend from her nursery, a boy no less! That's my girl.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

It's been a good day.

It's quite scary this blogging lark, for example I must have changed my profile picture about 20 times last night as didn't know if it should be me (no good recent ones), me and my children (there aren't many to choose from where I look ok and am with both my children) or me and husband (well the blog is about being a mummy so that didn't seem right) or me and my family (that just looked a bit smug) or something really random like the view of the Sydney Opera House from the ferry (people might think I live in Oz).  Anyway I just spent another 10 minutes looking for a good one and just kept the old one.

I think I also might be getting into this a bit late in the day, I already found some ladies today who have quit blogging in order to get a real rather than virtual life but I have never been a leader of the cutting edge fashion pack so I will continue onwards.  Anyway I admit to getting moments of tedium from this being at home lark (gasp!) which I wish I could use to whip up a victoria sponge but don't seem to be able to.

Went to see my bezzie today (young hip talk for life long best friend) who is in the same position child wise as me and we had a great old time talking the day away and trying to eat healthily in honour of the month of restriction we are in (ham rolls, mini packet of choc buttons each I took for us and the girls and weight watchers biscuits).  The girls played and the boys slept, ate and rolled around.

On the drive there I had a conversation with Gorgeous Girl (GG - 3 years) about the clouds and who lives on them apart from giants (her), and I said Angels............. and then ran out of ideas so it was a great start but a short exchange but we both had our sunglasses on (at her insistence of the rare sunny day) and we soon started another lovely exchange about why it was a lady called Beyonce singing 'gotta put a ring on it' on the radio and not the 'monkchips' - GG's way of saying Chipmunks (e.g. Alvin and pals).  So a great sunny, pleasant, sing song journey.

Anyway cue the dramatically different drive home, I didn't want the afternoon to end and so pushed my luck and left later than I should have (a usual habit in my life, I tend to leave the house for a destination at the time I was supposed to be there - just a malfunction in my brain which annoys my husband no end).  Cue therefore horrible drizzly rain, a freezing cold dark late afternoon, busy M25 and M1, hurtling lorries, a crying Beautiful Boy (BB - 8 months) who drops 2 dummies and GG who was starting to feel unwell earlier in the day was deteriorating rapidly and wouldn't talk above a whisper but was determined to tell me something.  This involved me repeating 'pardon', 'pardon', ' say it louder I can't hear you' for about 4 junctions until I finally got it.  She needed a poo and in her words the biggest poo in the world.

Anyway we got home safely albeit with my shoulders tensed up to my ears, BB asleep and GG swiftly changed into her PJ's and taken warm lemon and a marmite sandwich in bed.  She felt much, much better once I mentioned she might not be well enough for nursery in the morning (tomorrow is the first day as MORNING nursery attendees - hopefully we'll make it dressed with clean teeth).

Tonight dinner is safely eaten and I am hoping that the final of the Lynda Le Plante prog tonight is undisturbed by another cat/mouse massacre in the kitchen which involved me clearing up my own murder scene and antibacing the skirting boards at 10 pm last night (all the squealing from cats, mouse and husband occurred just as a really scary bit was happening so it was extra freaky).

So - all in all think I only said 'Shhhhh!' a few times today so it's been a good day.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

My nervous first post

Well here it is.  The First One.

I have been wanting to blog for a while now and have now taken the plunge.   New Year, new challenge and all that jazz.  I should be doing the online shopping but it wait another few minutes.....

Recently I've found my thoughts are too often taken up with finding the perfect slippers* and though I don't know how often I will blog or the quality it will be, I do also have occasional non slipper thoughts too which pop into my head and that it would be nice to share them with like minded (or not which is scary) people.

So here it is...my first little load of blurb - let's see what happens from here.

*I fear it is a side effect of spending more time at home. My latest pair (2nd bought in a month) my husband guffawed at and said they were for old ladies....the cheek.

n.b. I have had to delete some text, I think I sometimes write in a Shakespearean tone, please tell me if it happens.

Saturday 1 January 2011

All about Moi

Welcome to StumblingMummy
Husband and I pre babies


I'm a lady who forgets her age (honestly Husband has to remind me) and is an ex Events Director and now Mummy to a Gorgeous Girl and Fantastic Boy (5 and 3).  I'm stumbling a bit through parenthood, doing ok some days but gathering advice and inspiration from everywhere I can, (mainly friends and Pinterest).  I juggle life with a happy (most of the time), hardworking (too much), handsome husband. Oh and 1 cat who sheds enough fur to clothe us through winter and tries to communicate like a human.  I fear he's on his last legs - no that's not me hoping.


(I don't always have a drink in my hand)



I might ramble a bit (not in the walking sense - no thank you very much) and very likely moan about being bored, gossip about celebs, take life all a bit too seriously, go on a bit (ahem), but hopefully share a laugh too.


Please feel free to comment on anything, I love to chat.  Or if you are simply wasting some time, waiting for the kettle to boil and just having a peek, thankyou for coming.....


Nice to meet you.
x